AP Twitter Feed Hacked With Bogus Report of White House Attack

The Twitter account for the Associated Press was hacked on Tuesday, with the attackers posting a false report about explosions at the White House.

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The Twitter account for the Associated Press was hacked on Tuesday, with the attackers posting a false report about explosions at the White House.

"Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured," the @AP Twitter feed tweeted this afternoon.

The account has since been suspended. Minutes after the offending tweet appeared, the AP took to its Facebook page to say that "the Associated Press Twitter account (@AP) has been hacked. Please do not respond to news posted there in the last 20 minutes."

In a later update, the AP said the Twitter attack "came after hackers made repeated attempts to steal the passwords of AP journalists," but did not elaborate.

The hack, of course, comes just over a week after the Boston Marathon bombings, and one day after Canadian officials said they had thwarted a major attack on transportation systems there. The AP tweet got hundreds of re-tweets shortly after it was posted, though many immediately suggested that the feed had been hacked.

Over the weekend, the Twitter accounts of 60 Minutes (right), 48 Hours, and a Denver CBS affiliate were also hacked.

The @CBSDenver feed tweeted: "WMDs Provided by NATO to Al-Qaeda for a False Flag Operation in Syria" and "New Evidence of CIA Arming Al Qaeda Terrorists in #Syria." The @60Minutes feed, meanwhile, accused President Obama of being "shamelessly in bed" with Al-Qaeda in a tweet that included a link to the political action committee for Lyndon LaRouche.

The @CBSDenver feed is back online, but the @60Minutes and @48Hours accounts are still suspended.

In 2011, on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the NBC News Twitter account was also compromised and tweeted a fake message about an attack at Ground Zero.

UPDATE: AP later said that its mobile Twitter account, @AP_Mobile, was also hacked. It too has been suspended.

Chloe Albanesius has been with PCMag.com since April 2007, most recently as Executive Editor for News and Features. Prior to that, she worked for a year covering financial IT on Wall Street for Incisive Media. From 2002 to 2005, Chloe covered technology policy for The National Journal's Technology Daily in Washington, DC. She has held internships at NBC's Meet the Press, washingtonpost.com, the Tate Gallery press office in London, Roll Call, and Congressional Quarterly. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism from American University...
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